CJ Entertainment, long South Korea and Asia’s leading movie conglomerate, has now set its sights on becoming a fully-fledged global film producer.“The domestic [Korean] market has been highly saturated in recent years. Expanding overseas is no longer a choice but a necessity,” said Jeong Tae-sung, CEO of CJ Entertainment, at a recent event in Seoul.The company, which typically has a 30% share of the Korean distribution market, and is a sister company of leading exhibitor CJ-CGV, now aims to produce...
CJ Entertainment
Jeong
Tae-sung
CEO
Jeong, who has headed the film division of South Korea’s number one market player, CJ ENM, since 2012, is an outward-looking leader, best known for expanding the company’s international activities. Under his direction, multiple local-language remakes of CJ’s hit intellectual properties, such as comedy-drama “Miss Granny” and female-driven dramedy “Sunny,” have enjoyed box-office success outside Korea. CJ is currently handling some10 Hollywood titles, both originals and remakes. CJ’s Korean business has been in the red since 2016, and the company even yielded the top distributor position last year. And yet in 2019 all its local productions, including Bong Joon-ho’s Cannes’ Palme d’Or-winning “Parasite,” have become genuine hits and its local business is back on track.